The invention set forth in this specification pertains to new and improved musical instruments. More specifically it pertains to musical instruments which can either be manually operated or which can be operated through the appropriate utilization of a record-type member.
Throughout the ages a wide variety of different types of musical instruments have been developed and utilized. Such instruments have normally been of either of two different types: a type capable of being manually operated or of a type capable of being automatically operated so that a record member such as, for example, a disk carrying lugs, an elongated sheet provided with holes, or the like, serves to operate the instrument during the movement of a record member. Both types of instruments are considered to have a great deal of relative merit for serious musical purposes as well as for play purposes.
Unfortunately those known prior musical instruments which have been primarily intended for use in the toy field have normally been constructed so as to serve as either manually operated instruments or as automatically operated instruments. This is considered disadvantageous for play value purposes since if a toy instrument is to maintain the attention of a comparatively young child the instrument should preferably have different, separate modes of operation so as to be capable of being used by a child in different ways.
The recognition of the latter is believed to have led to the development of a few limited types of instruments capable of being utilized both manually and automatically. Thus, for example, it has been recognized that various types of hurdy-gurdies or barrel organs could be constructed so as to be operated by the rotation of a cam drum record member and so as to be capable of being manually actuated. Such instrument structures are considered comparatively undesirable for toy purposes because the cam drums employed in them are essentially unchangeable structures in the sense that they cannot be lifted out or replaced with any particular facility or ease.
In theory it should be possible to at least partially remedy this problem by making the cams used with the record member in this type of device adjustable so that a user can periodically reprogram the cams for different songs or melodies. As a practical matter this is considered undesirable in a toy for the simple reason that many small children are substantially incapable of repositioning a series of cams in a precise, desired predetermined manner. Further, a child in playing with a toy of this type, even if possessed of the capability of changing such cams, will not want to go through such an exercise because of the time and energy required.
Another factor has tended to preclude the use of instruments capable of being used manually and automatically in the toy field. This pertains to the relative complexity and the resultant costs of instruments of the type noted. In order for a toy musical instrument to find a widespread utilization it is necessary for such an instrument to be constructed in such a manner as to withstand the normal abuse of children and in such a manner as to be sufficiently inexpensive so that it can be sold at a comparatively nominal price. In a sense these two factors are somewhat contradictory. In general the more resistant a toy is to child abuse the more expensive it is to manufacture the toy. It has long been recognized that a possible solution to such contradiction would be to simplify the construction employed in a particular instrument.